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Turtle Bay Dive Resort Blog

Perfect Buoyancy On Every Dive

From scubadiving.com

Want to reduce your air consumption? Be able to fin faster and farther with less effort? Look relaxed and in perfect control? Finish the dive with less fatigue? Receive approving smiles from divemasters?

The secret is pinpoint buoyancy control, and it all begins with fine-tuning your weighting—that's how much lead you thread on your belt or put into your pouches. If you are carrying just the right amount of weight, you will have the smallest amount of BC inflation. That means less drag and more efficient finning. Less BC inflation also means less buoyancy shift with depth, so you'll make fewer adjustments.

How Much Weight Do I Need?

Correct weighting depends on your personal buoyancy needs and is influenced by a number of factors—from the composition of your body to the thickness of your wetsuit. You can get a rough estimate of how much weight you'll need by using our exclusive buoyancy calculator. You should be able to estimate the proper weight within 4 to 5 pounds. Now, go diving and:

Make One Final Check

Got your weighting exactly right on the first day of your vacation? Great. Now check it again a few days later. Chances are you can drop a couple more pounds. Why? You're more relaxed now, so you're breathing with less air in your lungs.

Is "Perfect" Weighting Always Perfect?

Because excellent buoyancy control and minimum weighting are the hallmarks of an expert diver, many of us feel pressure to eliminate every pound of lead we can. But sometimes that's a bad idea.

When you're wearing little or no neoprene, there's little or no buoyancy change with depth. You can therefore minimize your weighting without risking too much positive buoyancy when you ascend.

But wearing more neoprene means more changes in buoyancy as it compresses. At depth, you'll probably have to inflate your BC to compensate for it so you lose a good deal of the streamlining benefit. As you ascend, you'll have to vent that air accurately to avoid positive buoyancy. Here, a couple of extra pounds of lead will give you a margin for error.

Think of minimum weighting as you would the edge of a cliff. You don't want to fall over into positive buoyancy and an uncontrollable ascent. When in doubt, it's safer to stay a few steps—or pounds—back from the edge.

Fine Tune Your Trim

Finding perfect buoyancy isn't just about finding the right amount of weight, it's also about the distribution of that weight. Proper trim—the distribution of your weight front-to-back, side-to-side and head-to-toe—helps you keep your fins off the reef and maintain an efficient horizontal swimming position. You should be able to hover in a horizontal position (or, ideally, in any position) without your feet sinking or rising, without rolling to one side or the other.

If your weighting is spot-on so that you're neutral during your 15-foot safety stop, try these exercises to see if you're properly trimmed. If not, you can shift some weight to compensate. Don't expect perfection, but you can get close. (You've got at least three minutes to kill anyway.) The trick is to be as relaxed as possible. Don't fidget.

Buddha Hover Illustration by Mike Gushock

The Buddha Hover—Assume the modified lotus position (feet under your thighs) and grab your fin tips. This is a good position from which to fine-tune your buoyancy because your hands keep your fins from wiggling. It also detects trim problems: Do you fall over to one side or the other?

Prone Hover Illustration by Mike Gushock

Prone Hover—Stretch out face-down and concentrate on relaxing and not moving your hands and feet. Do you roll to one side or the other? Do your fins rise or sink?

Side Hover Illustration by Mike Gushock

Side Hover—This is a better way to detect front-to-back imbalance. Stretch out on your side and, again, concentrate on not moving your hands and feet. Do you roll?

The Benefits of Diving

By Jessica Shilling

For some it´s the adrenaline rush of the exploring the deep waters, for others it´s the beauty of the reef and the marine life that inhabits it. There are many reasons to scuba dive but most would agree that they dive for the pure enjoyment of experiencing the underwater world, so different from ours and truly amazing.

Scuba diving has it all, it’s an fantastic experience that can improve your emotional and physical health while learning new skills, making friends and expanding your environmental awareness.

Just starting out? Take a look at the following list of benefits for a little encouragement.

Health benefits

You don't have to be incredibly fit to scuba dive. It's a sport that's easily accessible to the average person. You do however need to be in a state of good health and free of any serious medical problems. Before diving you will be asked to answer a medical questionnaire and if your instructor has any concerns you will be referred to a doctor for a check-up.

If you dive on a regular basis your general fitness will improve. Exercising in water is an excellent way to strengthen your muscles. You spend hours in the water carrying heavy equipment while swimming against the natural resistance of the water. This may sound very tiring but it feels effortless because you are too busy enjoying yourself but in reality you are getting a fantastic work out.

Emotional well-being.

Gliding underwater while watching the fish go by is incredibly relaxing. Many people find diving to be a great way to get back to nature and de-stress. With practice you will learn calming breathing techniques which will not only make the dive more enjoyable but you´ll use up less air and be able to stay underwater for longer. Once you master your buoyancy it will make your diving experiences even better, it will become even more relaxing and you will feel one with the water.

Social benefits.

One great thing about diving is meeting fellow divers. By joining a scuba diving class or club you'll immediately come in contact with a lot of people with the same hobbies who may become life-long friends. While on a dive trip its common to make friends with fellow divers on the dive boat making your vacation even more exciting.

Environmental awareness

Diving makes you appreciate the ocean even more and will bring you in contact with people that can educate you about fragile underwater habitats and the importance of preserving them. You can even join ocean advocacy groups like the Making Waves in Colorado event and volunteer to help protect marine environments.

Join the 3rd annual Making WAVES in Boulder, Colorado on September 20th to the 22nd where you´ll have the chance to enjoy insightful presentations on ocean advocacy and more from an exciting list of attendees. This multifaceted symposium and celebration highlights ocean issues, solutions and is a change making event for engagement and national action.

Can Scuba Be a Good Workout?

By Jessica Vyvyan-Robinson

Although scuba is technically a sport, for most of us, diving is more about calm than cardio. One of scuba’s biggest attractions is the relaxation it offers, as well as the chance to escape from the frenetic pace of life on land. Most dives require very little physical work once underwater, and so it’s hard to think of scuba as part of a fitness regime. But a day of diving always leads to a good night’s sleep and a disproportionately large appetite, so perhaps we’re expending more energy underwater than we realize. Although diving requires a relatively low level of physical activity, other factors combine to make it effective exercise, which is good news for those of us who would rather spend our time beneath the waves than in the gym.

The conditions of the underwater environment are a considerable factor in scuba’s value as a fitness tool. Although you may not feel as though you’re exercising while diving, the water around you is conducting heat from your body 20 times faster than air, so you must work hard to maintain its core temperature. Even in tropical climates, metabolic activity increases significantly in order to combat heat loss; in cooler parts of the world, the body must expend even more energy to counteract frigid temperatures at depth. Some dives require more physical activity than others — anyone who’s ever had to contend with strong current knows just how tiring swimming against the flow can be. Similarly, keeping up with marine life, attempting to stay in one place for photography purposes, or any kind of underwater activity that involves hard finning results in additional calorie expenditure.

The technique used to fin properly, i.e. from the hip rather than from the knee, is key to strengthening core muscles as well as glute and back muscles, according to PADI’s director of communications Theresa Kaplan. She attributes diving’s toning and strengthening properties to the fact that water is a medium “hundreds of times more dense than air.” Water resistance is instrumental in defining scuba as a valuable form of low-impact exercise. Diving’s low impact also makes it a good alternative to conventional exercise for those with weak or injured joints, as it puts considerably less strain on the body than most land-based physical activities. Diving is therefore not only a good workout for healthy individuals, but also a great form of physical therapy for those recovering from injury. Some scientists even believe that scuba may decrease the time it takes for wounds to heal, thanks to the body’s consumption of concentrated levels of oxygen at depth.

Diving can also aid long-term fitness, as breathing techniques used to improve air consumption teach the body to absorb more oxygen for every inhale. Normally, the body uses only a quarter of the oxygen it inhales, but diving can increase lung efficiency over time. And the dive itself isn’t the only part of the sport that offers a workout. The routine of kitting up, carrying gear to the point of entry, getting in and out of the water and de-kitting also contributes to scuba’s overall fitness value. A dive cylinder weighs between 30 and 50 pounds; carrying a full scuba unit strengthens core muscles, particularly during shore entries. Lifting cylinders, weights and other equipment often involves actions comparable to weight-lifting exercises used in the gym. Diving is therefore not only a cardiovascular workout but a muscular one as well. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, the physical demands of diving are significant enough to be treated with caution; those suffer from significant health conditions or obesity should seek medical advice before attempting to dive.

The benefits of scuba to general physical fitness were acknowledged by the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities, which compared it in terms of metabolic activity with ice-skating, power-walking and casual soccer. On average, a man weighing 180 pounds can expect to burn as many as 600 calories during an hour dive, and many more if swimming in strong currents or particularly cold water. Several online calculators can work out the calories burned during a specific dive, based on weight and the time spent underwater.

Scuba is beneficial not only as a viable form of physical exercise, but also for mental and emotional wellbeing. The peace, serenity and beauty of the underwater world encourage positivity and give real joy to those who experience them. Diving is a great way to tone and strengthen your body, burn calories and boost your serotonin levels, ultimately making it both a rewarding and enjoyable way to keep fit.

I am sharing this new review on Trip Advisor posted by a returning guest from Canada.

Date of review: Apr 26, 2011.

This was our second stay at the Turtle Bay Dive Resort in just under a year. What can be said? On top of having super hosts and great staff there are the lush and relaxing grounds and the fantastic diving. With Fe's touch the soon to be finished new spa will be the cherry on the cake.

Seriously, this is a great place to go for a relaxing stay. Even if you dive 3 or 4 times a day you will still be refreshed and recharged after being here.

We will be back for more.

Date of stay: April 2011

Traveled with: Spouse

Member since: April 26, 2011

Recommended by this reviewer? Yes

Click on the following link to see all of the Trip Advisor reviews of Turtle Bay. Bookings can be made on line through our reservation system, via Agoda or through one of travel agents.

Answer: In terms of water temperature and visibility, any time of year is just great - the water temperature is around 28C. What you do need to be aware of is typhoon season which typically extends from August to December. The typhoon belt starts at 10 degree latitude which is more or less north of Cebu City. Thus choosing dive sites below Cebu City especially from August to December, you should be reasonably sure of avoiding lost diving time through typhoons.

Question: What type of wetsuit is appropriate.

Answer: A 3mm wetsuit should keep you warm enough. Some "thick skinned" divers are even comfortable with a 1mm skin. Shorties are fine but long westuits can be useful when there are jelly fish around. We often come across really small jellyfish which are hard to spot but still give a sting.

Question: What can I expect to see?

Answer: In general at good dive sites, you can expect to see a diveristy of hard and soft coral, a lot of macro critters, and a good mix of reef fish. Genrally fish polpulations and fish sizes are on the low size due to over fishing. Check out the dive books and dive forums to find out the special attarctions at each site. For example the major special attraction at Moalboal, Cebu are the "clouds" of sardines to be found at Pescador Island. These shoals of fish attract many predators such as jacks, barracuda, tuna and thresher sharks. This really is a site not to be missed.